The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls
by Howlin the Werewolf
Summary: When Madoka's wish retroactively killed Sloth, Greed knew he could put off his return to this world no longer. Armed with the knowledge and power accumulated across five worlds, he will have Sloth back and the threat ended once and for all, no matter what gods or cute cosmic horrors try to get in his way.
1. Chapter 1: A Changed World

The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls (Chapter 1) A Changed World  
by Howlin  
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)

* * *

Note:  
This story is an immediate sequel to The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Soul Reapers, which is part of a series of stories. Those stories introduce characters, events, and concepts. You may not understand everything if you have not read the previous stories.

* * *

Loki and I arrived back in the Incubators' world more heavily armed than I could have imagined when I left it. To an outside observer, little would have seemed to have changed. Neither Loki nor I had visible aged. I still wore my brown hair spiked up and still preferred the black pants and open half vest of my default homunculus form that showed off the oroboros mark in the center of my chest. The changes made to the transmutation circles on the soles of my boots would be difficult for even an experienced alchemist to pick out.

The most significant change to my appearance was that I'd traded in my shoulder bag for a utility belt with multiple pouches. A holster attached to the right side of the belt held a wooden wand. A carved wooden badge in the shape of a squashed pentagon with a stylized skull in its center was clipped to the belt just forward of the wand holster. The only other change to my appearance was a thin silver ball chain around my left wrist with a five barred cross dangling from it.

My loyal dog and I had appeared on the same sidewalk we'd first appeared on years ago when we were exploring this world for the first time with Sloth. I turned toward the city center and started walking with purpose, Loki trotting along at my side. My left eye shriveled up and vanished as I took a glass eye out of one of my pouches and inserted it into the now empty socket.

The heavily enchanted false eye that had once belonged to Alistor "Mad Eye" Moody could penetrate even the most powerful forms of invisibility and allowed me to see through solid matter. While I usually had the electric blue false eye track the same way as my brown organic eye, it was fully capable of rotating independently in my eye socket, even looking through the back of my head if need be. what I saw using the Mad Eye was not what I'd been expecting.

I had memories of visiting this world in two timelines. In the first, creatures born of curses and despair called witches and familiars hid inside pocket dimensions called barriers and labyrinths, preying on humans who strayed into their realms. Individual witches and familiars had unique appearances, though copies of the same witch or familiar were identical to one another. The second timeline had creatures called wraiths that looked like exceptionally tall, robed humans with multiple square shaped chunks of their faces carved out and floating off to the side of their heads. Both types of creature were invisible to normal humans.

Familiars were everywhere. Some of them were similar to familiars I'd encountered in the first timeline with minor differences, while others were new to me. Not only were the familiars out in the open rather than hiding in barriers, but they weren't attacking people.

I took a cell phone like device from my utility belt and flipped it open. The device was loaded with exotic sensors, which I'd calibrated to detect the energy signatures of Incubator technology and display locations on a map. The familiars showed up, as did a handful of concentrations of Grief Cubes that would indicate wraiths active in the city. A group of four Soul Gems and a handful of Grief Cubes were clustered together in a middle school.

"What do you think, Loki?" I asked my dog. "Should we deal with the wraiths first, then meet with the magical girls, or should we talk to the magical girls first and work together to deal with the wraiths?"

Loki yawned.

"You're right, boy," I said, mussing his floppy ears. "I could do with working some aggression out before we try to make peaceful contact with the magical girls too."

* * *

Wraiths tended to congregate in areas where people felt strong negative emotions. That hadn't changed since the last time I'd been in this world. Loki and I followed my phone's map into the red light district. We walked past women and girls selling themselves on the street and down an alley.

A wraith towered over a prostitute and her john as they had sex behind a dumpster. The wraith's hands were extended out and glowing strands of energy rose up from the couple and formed into stable Grief Cubes. As the energy flowed out of them, the two victims' movements became more mechanical and their faces took on blank, vacant stares. They were too far gone to notice Loki and I approaching.

I drew my wand and pointed at the wraith, saying, "adava kedavra!" A green bolt of light lanced from the tip of my wand to strike the wraith dead center in its chest. When the bolt hit, the creature dissolved to nothing, dropping a dozen crystalline Grief Cubes on the street. I holstered my wand and picked up the Grief Cubes.

Killing the wraith did nothing to restore its victims. Sloth's Soul Gem had the power to restore a person who'd been drained of their emotions by a wraith, but doing so always cost more in terms of Grief Cubes than the wraith had created draining them. I'd since learned to create artificial Grief Cubes and to cleanse Soul Gems without relying on Grief Cubes at all, but none of that meant I had the power to give these people back what they'd lost.

"You still couldn't see the wraith, could you, boy?" I said as I led Loki out of the alley. "Maybe I should have left you with Ichigo and the others while I dealt with this. Oh well. You're here now, and I'll keep you safe."

* * *

Loki and I approached the location of the next wraith, and though the Mad Eye, I saw beams of light shooting through the window of the warehouse I'd detected it inside. The wraith was fighting something. Among the abilities I'd mastered in preparation for coming back to this world were four different forms of high speed movement. The one I used to get inside the warehouse in the blink of an eye was called flash step. Loki followed me with a flash step of his own.

The wraith was fighting a familiar. The familiar looked like a four foot tall paper doll wielding a staff with a heavy looking ball on one end. The wraith had summoned a number of levitating prisms that fired finger width energy beams at the familiar. Taking advantage of joints that rotated all the way around, the familiar dodged the beams then leaped into melee range with its staff behind its back. The familiar swung a heavy overhead swing for the wraith's head. The wraith raised an arm to block and found that arm crushed by the heavy staff.

Neither of them were focusing on Loki and I, but since Loki couldn't see the stray shots to avoid them, I cast a shield spell between us and them. There weren't any other people in the warehouse, so I opted to stay out of the fight and watch.

The wraith looked like it had the familiar dead to rights, but an instant before its beams struck, the familiar teleported behind the wraith and crushed its head with its staff. The wraith dissolved, dropping its collection of Grief Cubes. The familiar, who's painted expression hadn't varied at any point, ignored the dropped Grief Cubes and walked out of the warehouse on its unsteady, wobbly joints. I retrieved the Grief Cubes before leaving myself.

"The familiars are fighting the wraiths," I said. "The wraiths are acting the way I remember, but the familiars are acting outside barriers, ignoring humans. Do you think one of the magical girls figured out how to summon and control them?"

* * *

I leaned against a lamp post outside Mitakihara Middle School. My phone was in my hand and my organic eye was fixed on the screen while the Mad Eye looked through the walls of the building. My appearance attracted looks, but no one approached Loki and I while I checked the school over.

"There are familiars all over the place," I said to Loki. "Four magical girls, spread through three different classrooms. No sign of Kyubey anywhere nearby. Hopefully, the magical girls will have some idea what's going on."

I waited until the closing bell rang. The magical girls divided into pairs and headed in opposite directions. One pair was with a handful of normal girls while the other pair broke off from their fellow students and headed off on their own. I shadowed the later pair until the older of the two girls came to an abrupt halt and turned to face in my direction. She had yellow eyes and curly blond hair done up in a pair of looping tails.

"You can stop pretending you aren't following us now," she said with a self assured tone.

Taking a Grief Cube out of my belt pouch, I held it up where she could see it and said, "I'm looking for Kyubey."

"You're not a girl," blurted out the younger magical girl, who had white hair and odd brown gold eyes.

"I see she isn't the only one who's observant," I said with an amused smile as I nodded toward the older blond girl.

"Who exactly are you?" asked the blond.

"My name is Greed," I said. "What should I call you?"

"I'm Mami Tomoe," said the blond girl. Gesturing to her white haired companion, she said, "This is Nagisa."

"Pleased to meet you," I said. "Do either of you know where I can find Kyubey?"

"You shouldn't be able to find him at all," said Nagisa. "How are you even able to see that Grief Seed in your hand?"

"Magic eye," I said, pointing to the electric blue glass eye in my left socket. For emphasis, I rotated the eye three hundred sixty degrees while keeping my organic right eye still. "I expect you have other questions and I'm happy to answer them if you'll do me the same courtesy. I'll even throw in some Grief Cubes for your time. What do you say?"

The girls stared at me silently for a long moment. Their expressions shifted very slightly. They were consulting with one another telepathically, and likely hadn't had cause to practice being subtle about it. After a few minutes, the blond girl spoke for them.

"Follow me. We can talk over tea."

"And cheesecake," thrilled Nagisa as she fell into line following Mami.

"That sounds delicious. Thank you," I said as I walked with the pair.

Mami led the way to an apartment building. Once we were inside, a quick glance told me she and Nagisa lived here on their own. We were unlikely to be disturbed here.

When the three of us were seated around a table with a cup of hot tea and a slice of cheesecake in front of us, Mami asked, "How do you know Kyubey?"

"My wife was a magical girl," I said, lifting my teacup to my lips and taking a sip.

"Was?" asked Nagisa after swallowing her first bite of cheesecake.

I nodded, setting my teacup down. "She had powerful healing powers that let her restore the wraiths' victims. She overtaxed herself. Her Soul Gem became fully corrupted, then it just disappeared."

"She was taken by the Law of Cycles," said Mami nodding. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," I said. "I tried wishing her back, but Kyubey refused me. After that, I went elsewhere to acquire power. Part of it was the vague hope I'd find some way to bring her back. Part of it was some idea of getting revenge on Kyubey for the part he played in what happened to her."

"Is that why you're looking for Kyubey?" asked Mami.

"Yes," I said. "I get it. I used to think of him as a friend too. He came into your life and made an impossible dream come true. Its hard for a stranger like me to compete with a narrative like that."

"That's true," said Mami. "If you're Kyubey's enemy, we can't trust you."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said, getting to my feet. "Even so, thank you for your time and for the tea." I dropped a dozen Grief Cubes on the table and walked out he door.

* * *

"That could have gone better," I said to Loki as we walked along the dark streets. "Could have gone worse too. Neither of them took a shot at us while our backs were turned."

Stopping at a landmark I recognized from my last visit to this world, I put a hand on Loki and activated the transmutation circle tattooed on my shoulder blade. Loki and I passed through the street and dropped down into the chamber below. This underground base had been home to Sloth, Loki, and I the last time we came to this world.

It had all the basic amenities, but aside from being hidden underground, there weren't any defenses. I drew my wand and laid down some basic defensive spells before heading into the kitchen. They wouldn't keep out a concerted effort, but they would slow a potential attacker down and buy me some time to prepare.

The food I'd left in the refrigerator over a year ago had long since gone bad, but a quick transmutation rendered it edible again. When I visited this world last, my homunculus body meant that food and sleep were luxuries. I could do without either and be just fine. Now, I needed food to fuel my new spiritual powers and sleep to halt the ageing of my soul.

After eating a big meal and feeding Loki, I settled into a comfortable chair in a cross legged meditation pose. with an act of will, I manifested a katana and laid it across my lap. The weapon was a unique blade forged from the power in my soul. After acquiring it, I had to train hard in order to develop a relationship with the sword's spirit, learn its name, and master its powers. I'd skipped a few steps in my training with the sword and now I was playing catch up. I'd promised the spirit of the sword, Tsumi no Rensa, that I'd train for an hour a day until I mastered the art of forced manifestation, summoning the sword spirit into the outside world. I was still years from mastering the technique, but I'd made a promise and I was sticking to it.

When I'd completed my day's meditation, I sheathed my sword opposite my wand and willed it to vanish back inside my physical body. A zanpakto is a spiritual weapon. Though it had the power to cut body and soul alike, it was invisible to ordinary humans. Magical girls, however, could see the weapon just fine, and I didn't want my plan to contact the other two magical girls derailed by the implied threat of approaching them carrying a sword.

Before I went to bed, I laid out a set of dark detectors on my night stand. The magical devices should warn me if anyone tried to attack me in my sleep. Looking into the enchanted mirror called a foelgass, I verified that Kyubey's face was still the only one reflected there. It looked as though I hadn't managed to make an enemy of Mami and Nagisa yet. That was of some comfort as I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"Good morning, class. We have a new student joining us today. Say hello to Marcus Oren."

"I'm pleased to meet you," I said with a bow to the other students. While my head was down, my enchanted false eye flicked over the students, picking out the two girls wearing Soul Gem rings.

"Marcus' family just moved to Mitakihara," explained the teacher.

"Miss Saotome," said one of the girls in the front row raising her hand, "why does he have a dog in class?"

"Loki's a service animal," I said. "I don't know if you guys can tell, but my left eye's fake. Most of the time it doesn't matter, but my situation awareness on that side isn't very good. Loki makes sure I don't get hit by a car I can't see coming or bump into someone in the hall on accident."

"Thank you, Marcus," said Miss Saotome. "Now, please find a seat and we'll resume our lesson.

Once I took my seat, I began idly stacking Grief Cubes on the corner of my desk. I'd taken a seat close to the front so both magical girls were behind me. They recognized the Grief Cubes and reacted with surprise before reigning themselves in. As I watched their reactions behind me using the Mad Eye, I noticed a third girl react.

The two magical girls were sitting near each other. One had short blue hair and the other had long red hair. The third girl behind them had black hair and purple eyes. She wasn't wearing a Soul Gem ring and I didn't see a Soul Gem in her bag or on her person. She was wearing a black earring with a purple gem set in it that was invisible to my organic eye.

None of the girls took the opportunity to initiate telepathic contact, so I ended up waiting for a break between classes. The girl with blue hair got up and stretched while the red head cautiously got to her feet. I left the Grief Cubes on my desk and walked over to the two of them.

"You all know my name, but it's going to take me a while to learn all of yours," I said to the blue haired girl.

"I'm Sayaka," she said. Telepathically, she added, "Mami told us about you. I don't know what game you're playing, but if you hurt any of my friends, you'll regret it."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Sayaka," I replied. Telepathically, I thought back, "The only person I have any intention of hurting is Kyubey. And that'll have to wait until I can get some answers about where all these familiars came from."

"Um... hi. I'm Madoka," said a pink haired girl who kept glancing at Loki.

"Hello, Madoka," I said, smiling at her. "Loki's friendly. You can pet him if you like."

"Hi, Loki," said Madoka, crouching down to pet my floppy eared brown dog.

"I'm Kyoko," said the red haired magical girl. Telepathically, she thought, "Those Grief Cubes...?"

"You and Sayaka can split them," I thought nodding. "When I got here, i killed the wraiths I detected. I don't need Grief Cubes so I gave half to Mami and Nagisa, and the other half is yours."

"My name is Homura Akemi," said the black haired girl with the earring. She put a hand around my wrist and said, "Let me show you the campus."

Homura's grip looked gentle but she was holding on with inhuman strength. I didn't try to fight it, accepting it as the invitation it was. A quick whistle to Loki and the dog padded along after me.

When we were in an empty hall, Homura stopped. I'd let her make her statement, so I pulled my arm back. Between my homunculus body with superhuman strength and speed in proportion to the energy of red stones I'd consumed, and my spirit energy infused soul enhancing me further, I'd run out of ways to measure the upper limit of my strength. Somehow, Homura was much stronger than me, not letting my arm budge an inch without displaying the slightest sign of effort. I had ways to increase my strength further, transformations, potions, artifacts, but resorting to them wouldn't be much of a statement, and there was no guarantee it'd be enough.

"I see I have your attention," said Homura with a small smile and a mildly amused tone.

"You do," I said, keeping my expression neutral.

"I've sacrificed a lot in order to create a world where my friends can be happy," said Homura. "Whatever you came here to do, do it without involving Sayaka Miki, Kyoko Sakura, Mami Tomoe, or Madoka Kaname."

"Homura, I'm not here to hurt your friends," I said, activating the transmutation circle on my back. Rendering myself temporarily intangible, I removed my hand from Homura's grip. "I'm just looking for answers. Do you know why there are familiars everywhere? Do you know where Kyubey is?"

"If you know what they're called, you know that familiars serve a witch," said Homura. "As for Kyubey, he's been very busy cleaning up his mess."

Suddenly, Homura was holding a badly battered Incubator by the scruff of its neck. The creature looked like a cross between a cat and a rabbit. It had white fur with red markings, round pink eyes, and a pair of tentacles growing out of its ears. This one's fur was disheveled and missing in places, revealing bloody red issue beneath. Its tail wasn't moving, but I could see an occasional twitch from its limbs indicating it was still alive.

"Help me," came a desperate telepathic plea from the wounded Incubator.

"Don't you remember me at all?" I asked Kyubey. "I'm sure this wounded and helpless routine works really well on people who don't know you're a gestalt consciousness spread across multiple planets."

"These creatures are very practiced in deception, but I can assure you, his distress is very real," said Homura. "You see, I've killed all the others, and this one's too weak and wounded to make more bodies."

"Why are you keeping this one alive?" I asked, contemplating the amount of power it would take to do what she was claiming to have done.

"Like I said, I'm making him clean up his mess," said Homura. "I won't bore you with the details, but once we're finished, there won't be any more wraiths ever."

"Save me and I'll grant the wish you asked for before you left this timeline," thought Kyubey urgently.

"I thought you swore off using human emotions, Incubator," said Homura with mock affection. "After I... changed, you said it was too dangerous, but here you are, offering to grant a wish for your freedom. This is why you need me to keep an eye on you, and keep you from repeating your mistakes."

And Kyubey was gone. Just like before, I didn't sense any energy buildup, hear any displacement of air, or even see the point when it happened. The Incubator was simply there one instant and gone the next.

"I hope that answered your questions," said Homura.

"It did," I said, my mind racing as I used every bit of mental discipline I had to keep calm.

"You don't need to bother disenrolling," said Homura. "Tomorrow, no one will know you were ever at this school. Don't come back."

Now, Loki and I were standing outside on the path leading up to the school. Homura was nowhere in sight. A collection of birdlike familiars were perched in a tree nearby watching us curiously with eyes made out of buttons.

I took a deep breath and let my control relax a bit. My limbs trembled and my eyes opened wide as I let myself feel the panic that had been building up as my conversation with Homura went on.

Loki whined and nuzzled up against me. I stroked my loyal dog's head and drew comfort from his presence even as I worked through every terrifying implication of Homura's words and actions. Finally, I'd processed enough and I stopped trembling.

When my body steadied, a line of blue light ran up my body. Starting at the soles of my shoes and passing along my body until it vanished in a few sparks at the top of my spiked hair, the wave of light transformed my body. I'd returned to my full adult height as I shed the appearance of someone who wouldn't be out of place in a middle school. The school uniform was gone, replaced by black boots, black pants, and a black, open half vest. My brown hair had turned black, my dark skin pale, and my brown organic eye was now purple with a slitted pupil. My human teeth were replaced with the pointed shark like teeth of my homunculus form.

"Come on, boy," I said to Loki as I started walking. "It's time to head back to the lab and decide our next move."

* * *

Author's comments:  
We are now post Rebellion in the Madoka timeline and Greed's now met the demiurge of this world.


	2. Chapter 2: Making Connections

The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls (Chapter 2) Making Connections  
by Howlin  
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)

* * *

Once back in my underground lab, I added more layers to the defensive spells. There weren't really any barriers that could stand up to the raw power I believed Homura had, but most of the protective spells I learned at Hogwarts were more about avoiding detection than standing up to brute force. Once I was as secure as I felt I could be, I sat down at a work space and got to work.

The first thing I did was create a Marauder's Map of Mitakihara. The enchantments would let me monitor the movements of everyone within the city limits. Once I'd laid the basic enchantment, the map needed to be physically taken everywhere it would be monitoring. Rather than take it around town myself, I constructed a small automaton to do the job for me.

The mapping drone took the form of a small metal rat. A compartment accessible on its back held the folded up parchment. The intelligence I imbued it with was simple, just enough to navigate through whatever area I told it to. I put a tiny invisibility cloak on it so it could avoid detection while it did its job. A small time tuner implanted in its chest caused it to go back in time every sixty seconds while on a mission so the entire mapping process would be done in one minute no matter how large an area needed to be mapped.

It took me three hours to design and build the drone, but when it returned with my fully filled in map, I considered it time well spent.

My next step was to get out a pensive. The rune inscribed stone bowl allowed a person to relive their own or someone else's memories from an objective third person point of view. Details that hadn't been noticed at the time could be discovered by reviewing the memories in the pensive. Using my wand, I drew a silvery thread out of my temple, the memory of today's encounter with Homura, and dropped it into the bowl.

Picking up a notebook, I prodded the penisve's contents with my wand until the scene began to play out. Touching the surface, I was drawn into the memory itself, physically present in the past scene, but unable to interact.

Reviewing the scene, I wrote down every word that had passed between us. The review let me notice something I hadn't before. When Homura got me alone in the hall, time stopped for everyone and everything except us. It was most obvious from looking at Loki, but a quick glance out the window showed it wasn't a localized phenomenon. When I went intangible and broke contact with Homura, time started moving again, but Homura shuddered slightly, leading me to suspect time had still been briefly stopped for her after I broke contact but before she deactivated her power.

Once I exited the pensive and put the memory safely back where it belonged, inside my head, I closed my eyes and turned my attention inward. Tsumi no Rensa, the spirit of my zanpakto, was not the only spirit that dwelt within my soul. Araña, my inner hollow, represented my baser instincts. While Tsumi no Rensa waned to see me grow and develop, Araña wanted to see me safe from harm and dominating my enemies. Unlike the other two avatars of my spiritual powers, the being I called Vaccine didn't originate as part of me at all. He was a soul fragment of an ancient evil wizard named Yhwach. Through the generations, Vaccine had been passed down from parent to child at the moment of conception, and had diverged considerably from the psychic copy he had started out as. Vaccine offered a wealth of knowledge I didn't already know and an outside prospective.

Each of my inner spirits had some insights to contribute, and in a situation like this, I could use all the help I could get. "Okay, guys. What do you think?"

"If you want to rescue Kyubey, it's as simple as killing his last body," said Tsumi no Rensa. "If you do, however, it will be nearly impossible to keep him contained. The one you'll be able to summon with your bankai will be in good health and will probably be able to make a new body immediately. Further, it will come with he risk, however slight, of spreading the Incubators to other worlds when you travel."

"We have spare souls," said Araña. "Getting our wish granted doesn't have to mean losing the progress you've made developing this soul."

"We never did find a way for someone to have a Sou Gem and spirit energy at the same time," I said. "If we go that route, I'll need to synchronize my memories and smash the Soul Gem, since I'm not going to keep being two people nad I'm not giving up my current powers."

"If you wish to confront Homura, you'll need to use the Oin," said Vaccine. "We expected to need its power to kill Kyubey, and she was already strong enough to do so on her own."

I looked at my foeglass, a magic mirror that showed me my enemies. For the first time in a long time, it was completely clear. Even Kyubey wasn't showing on it anymore.

"The foeglass suggests his offer was genuine," I said. "It'd get us what we came for and we'd be able to leave immediately, but if we don't finish off Kyubey, this could all happen again."

"It seems here's a choice to be made," said Tsumi no Rensa. "You can decide who your enemies are."

"Nothing is going to make me abandon a chance to get Sloth back," I said. "Not even my hatred for that creature. Even so, I don't want to act before I have all the information. That was our mistake last time and I'll be damned if I'm going to forget a lesson that harsh."

"Nagisa wasn't on Homura's list of people not to contact," said Tsumi no Rensa. "Odds are she can provide useful information."

"Okay, the Oin stays out of play until I make my final decision," I said. "Meanwhile, I'll respect Homura's request and not approach her friends. I don't want to be her enemy, and I don't want to be Kyubey's ally."

* * *

While I watched my map and waited for a moment when Nagisa would be alone, I set to work building a device I'd been designing in fits and starts throughout my time in the last world without Sloth. From a user interface point of view, it was very simple. It was a white box with a red button on top, a chute coming off one side, and a power cord compatible with standard wall outlets. When you press the button, the device manufactures and dispenses a Grief Cube.

The device worked in two stages. First, it produced a soul candy, a made to order artificial soul in the form of a small green pill. The soul candy had a simple personality imprinted on it that could feel emotions, but wasn't quite sapient. From there, the energies and emotions of the soul candy were drained in a technological emulation of the wraiths' abilities. Once the stable Grief Cube was formed, the drained soul candy was recycled for its raw materials and the Grief cube was dispensed.

I was carrying one of these devices with me when I walked into a cheese shop. My map had told me Nagisa had come here alone. Loki had to wait for me outside the shop.

"That's a lot of cheese," I commented as I approached, eyeing the overfull shopping basket.

She glanced at me, shrugged, and said, "I love cheese. It's my favorite food. And there's so many different kinds."

"I've never even heard of half of these," I said conversationally. "Do you think you can tell me about them? I can show you how this works in exchange."

"What is it?" she asked.

I shook a finger and smiled, saying, "Not unless you tell me about the cheese."

Nagisa rolled her eyes but smiled back and said, "All right."

After she paid, Nagisa, Loki, and I settled in at a table for an outdoor cafe. The young, white haired magical girl unwrapped her cheeses one by one, taking a small slice from each and tasting it as she chattered happily about its flavor, texture, and bouquet. She'd practically swooned over a particular desert cheese.

"That sounds really good. Let me try it," I said.

Clutching the piece to her chest, she said, "Get your own."

Drawing my wand, I said, "That's exactly what I intend to do." A quick multiplication spell caused the piece she was holding to become two pieces.

"You can do that?" said Nagisa, slowly offering me one of the pieces.

"Yep," I confirmed, trying the cheese. "Wow, this really is good."

"You're lucky," said Nagisa. "I can use my magic to make cakes, candies, and other sweets, but I can't make cheese at all."

"Is that what you wished for? To be able to make sweets? And only later you learned you like cheese better?"

"No," said Nagisa, lowering her head and closing up.

"I'm sorry," I said at once. "You don't have to talk about your wish if you don't want to. I know Sloth's wish was really personal."

"She had healing powers, right?" said Nagisa. "You usually get those if you use your wish to heal someone. If I was smarter, that's what I would have done."

"Sloth wished for the power to heal and the power to bring the dead back to life," I confirmed. "Something bad happened in her past that wasn't her fault, but she still felt guilty about anyway. She wished for the power so she could make amends and make things right."

Now Nagisa was in tears. "I wished for a cake," she choked out between sobs. "My mom was in the hospital dying of cancer and I wished I could share one last cake with her. I could have wished her better, but I was too stupid to think of it."

"Check your Soul Gem!" I said urgently.

Blinking, she complied, holding out her palm and transforming her Soul Gem ring into its egg form. The crystal in the center of the elaborate gold wire work was almost completely dark. On seeing it in that state, Nagisa took out a Grief cube and used it to draw off the black corruption tainting her Soul Gem, letting it shine a bright white.

Wiping her face on her sleeve, Nagisa said, "That always happens when I think too hard about my wish."

"I can see why," I said. "You do know that Soul Gem corruption is built up by negative emotional energy, right?"

She nodded. "Kyubey explained it when he went over how to use Grief Cubes."

"I guess I'd better hold up my side of the bargain," I said, changing the subject. I found an outlet and plugged the device in. I pushed the button and Nagisa's Soul Gem pulsed an instant before the new Grief Cube was dispensed.

"Did you just make a Grief Cube?" confirmed Nagisa.

I nodded. "After losing Sloth because there was no way to get Grief Cubes without human suffering, I made it a priority to find another way. I can explain how it works if you're interested. Either way, I brought it as a gift. I'm sure you and the others could get a lot of use out of it."

"Why are you giving me this?" she asked.

"Sloth never liked living at other people's expense," I said. "I don't figure you guys like it any more than she did."

"Before... you wanted to know about Kyubey," said Nagisa. "None of us has seen him. He disappeared around the same time these weird creatures showed up."

"They're called familiars," I said, indicating a small group of them nearby. "I've encountered them before, but they're acting odd. I'm used to them trying to kill anyone they can get their hands on but the only ones I've seen fight at all were going after a wraith."

"As far as we've been able to figure out so far, there's two types," said Nagisa. "One set attacks wraiths. The other type attacks the first type of familiar and ignores wraiths. Neither of them attack anyone or anything else. Some of the smarter wraiths have taken to retreating from familiars that attack them toward other groups of familiars for protection."

"You know, it occurs to me that without Kyubey around to dispose of them, you must be building up a lot of filled Grief Cubes," I said. "I know a way to empty them safely so they can be reused."

"How did you get all these powers?" asked Nagisa.

"Some human souls naturally generate something called spirit energy. With training, you can learn to use it for all kinds of things. After Sloth was taken by the Law of Cycles, I went to a place where they had spirit energy down to a science. Unfortunately, what Kyubey does to magical girls' souls means they can't use spirit energy."

"Figures," pouted Nagisa.

"If you want, I can turn you back," I said. "Well,not exactly back to normal normal, but you could stop being a magical girl and start learning to use spirit energy. Fair warning, though, spirit energy is a lot less intuitive than magical girl powers."

"Can I think about it?" asked Nagisa.

I nodded. "The offer's open as long as I'm still in this world. And I don't plan on leaving until I finish what I came here to do."

"To kill Kyubey," said Nagisa.

"Sloth wanted revenge on the lying little rat," I said. "She thought what he was doing to magical girls was callous, cruel, and needed to be stopped once and for all, but it's more than that."

"So explain it," said Nagisa.

"The Law of Cycles isn't natural," I said. "Someone wished it into existence, and that wish retroactively changed the past. Before the Law of Cycles, when a magical girl's Soul Gem became fully corrupted, she turned into a dangerous monster called a witch. Sloth turned into a witch and I ended up crossing worlds and storming the gates of heaven to find a way to bring her back to herself. I succeeded. Then Kyubey granted that wish and now it never happened. I never got her back because she was taken by the Law of Cycles instead."

"So, what are you planning to do?"

"I haven't decided yet," I admitted. "What I want is Sloth back and Kyubey unable to reach out across universes to take her away again. How exactly I'm going to accomplish it, I don't know."

* * *

After Nagisa had gone home, I took Loki and tracked down a lone familiar away from populated areas. This was one of the giant cotton balls with mustaches. The butterfly wings I remembered from my first encounter with them in the other timeline had been replaced with a blue fish like tail. The fins were arranged side b side like those of a dolphin, but the tail was covered in scales instead of skin. I unhooked my substitute soul reaper badge from my belt and addressed Loki.

"I thought the familiars were Homura's, but Nagisa said different groups of familiars are fighting each other. I was hoping mundane methods of information gathering would do the job, but it looks like I'm going to need to go to the source."

The squashed pentagon of wood in my hand was surrounded by flickering green flames for an instant. The next instant, I was no longer holding my badge. I was holding a curved short sword with the badge acting as a cross guard.

Seeing the weapon, the familiar panicked and tried to flee. I snapped the fingers of my left hand that wasn't holding the sword and cast a quick spell that outlined the familiar in an aura of green light. At the same time, I told Loki, "Hold him still, boy."

Now able to see the familiar's outline, Loki closed his jaws around its fish like tail. The familiar struggled frantically in a futile effort to free itself.

"Calm down," I said as I casually approached the panicked familiar. "This sword is more than capable of cutting you down, but what purpose would that serve?"

Faster than the familiar could react, I slashed through the center of its body. If I'd been using a normal blade, that would have been fatal, but I had the ability to keep this weapon from leaving physical wounds. Instead of cutting its body, I cut its past, inserting myself into the familiar's personal history.

In the new past that was now shared between the familiar and I, I was there when it came into existence, hidden under an invisibility cloak. Taking care to stay out of the way, I watched without interfering. Once I'd seen enough, I returned to the present where Loki was still holding the struggling familiar in place.

"You can let it go now, boy. We have what we need."

I headed out. Loki let go of the familiar and fell into step behind me. The sword in my hand was briefly enveloped in green flames, turning it back into a badge, which I clipped back to my utility belt.

* * *

The sun had set for the evening. Homura was seated at a cafe table set up on a cliff overlooking Mitakihara. Kyubey laid limp in the grass a short distance away, a quivering wreck. A popping noise announced my arrival on the scene. I had a hand on Loki's head so that I could take him side along when I apparated here.

"Giving Nagisa that box was a nice thing to do," said Homura without turning around.

"I told you, I don't mean your friends any harm," I said. "Jury's still out on you, though."

"Oh?" asked Homura serenely.

"I didn't really understand exactly what you did to the Law of Cycles. Not yet. But at this point, I'm more concerned with why."

"What do you know about the Law of Cycles?" asked Homura.

"I know it manifests in this world as a force that causes Soul Gems to disappear when they become fully corrupted. I know that the Law of Cycles isn't a natural phenomenon. It is the result of a wish made by Madoka Kaname, probably in an ill advised attempt to save magical girls from becoming witches."

"Madoka's wish turned her into the Law of Cycles. She made a wish so selfless that she stopped existing as a person. What I did was selfish. I broke the part that was Madoka off from the Law of Cycles so she could be a person again."

"How is that selfish?" I asked.

"Madoka's wish gave all magical girls a chance at salvation. I risked ruining that because I wanted someone I cared about back. What would you call it?"

"Love," I said.

"Same thing," said Homura.

"Considering what I came here to do, I can't fault you for Madoka," I said. "Can we talk about Nagisa and Sayaka?"

"What about them?" asked Homura.

"They weren't ordinary magical girls," I said. "They could use witch powers. Half the familiars running around were made by them before you erased their memories and took away their powers. How did you do that? And why did you take that away from them?"

"Nagisa and Sayaka were dead," said Homura. "They'd been taken by the Law of Cycles. Kyubey decided to run an experiment. When my Soul Gem became corrupted, he tried to cut me off from the Law of Cycles and observe me turning into a witch or observe Madoka come to my rescue. Either way, his goal was to restore the old witch system."

"Got anything to say for yourself?" I asked Kyubey.

"It was what we learned from that experiment that caused us to conclude human emotions were too unpredictable to be used as a power source," Kyubey said telepathically. "My offer to grant your wish if you rescue me still stands."

Turning my back on the Incubator, I asked Homura, "Where to Nagisa and Sayaka come in?"

"Madoka was smarter than Kyubey," said Homura with a small smile. "Instead of coming for me alone, she brought the two of them with her. They had all their memories from the other timeline and could use the powers of the witches they would have turned into were it not for the Law of Cycles."

"And you took away those memories and powers," I said.

"They couldn't accept what I'd done to bring Madoka back," said Homura. "I gave them the happiest lives I could in this new world."

"I think I understand," I said. "You had someone you love taken from you and you did whatever it took to get her back. I hope you understand when I feel the need to do the same."

I started to cast a spell at Kyubey, but suddenly, Loki, Homura, and I were no longer on the cliff. We were again outside the school with Kyubey nowhere in sight.

"I do understand," said Homura. "I hope you find a way, but Kyubey is mine."

Then she was gone again. I called Loki and headed for home. It was only when I was back behind my wards that I let myself smile.

* * *

Author's comments:  
Now, Greed is starting to get an idea of what happened, who was involved, and how he might be able to set things right. Given the powers at work here, he's treading carefully.


	3. Chapter 3: Exploring the Options

The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls (Chapter 3) Exploring the Options  
by Howlin  
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)

* * *

The next day, I was waiting for Nagisa as she headed home from school. Her class let out earlier than Mami's, so she was the only magical girl in the cluster of kids released when the bell rang.

"I might have a way we can help solve each other's problems," I said when I caught sight of her.

The young magical girl followed me away from the humans, past a locked fence, and into a currently empty construction site. A handful of birdlike familiars that reported to Homura were perched on one of the steel I-beams above us, but they didn't seem overly agitated.

"Okay, I'm here. Now, what are you talking about?" asked Nagisa.

"You made the wrong wish," I said. "If you could go back and change what you wished for, you would. I think I have a way you can do just that."

"Are you serious?" she asked.

"Yes. I have a handful of powers that let me effect time in different ways. The only thing is, this particular power requires a good deal of trust."

"Why's that?" asked Nagisa.

I transformed my badge into its sword form and said, "To change your wish, I need to cut your Soul Gem with this."

"No," said Nagisa, covering her Soul Gem ring with her opposite hand.

"Hence the problem," I said. Then I slashed through one of the nearby support beams without damaging it. "I can show you my sword not cutting things, but letting me cut your Soul Gem will still take a leap of faith."

She considered for a long moment then said, "I could have my mom back, though."

Her Soul Gem turned from a silver ring to a gold wire wrapped, egg shaped crystal. She held her hand out toward me then turned her head away and closed her eyes tight. I slashed her Soul Gem and inserted myself into her past at the moment she made her contract with Kyubey and convinced her to make a different wish, the same wish that Sloth had.

"This may be a little disorienting," I said. "The changes I made to your past only effect you. You have the power to heal the sick and raise the dead, but as far as the rest of the universe is concerned, you've never used it."

Nagisa nodded and said, "I think I get it." Then she used her new powers to resurrect her mother in a flash of white light.

I caught her almost completely back Soul Gem as she dropped it and lunged for her mother, tears streaming down her face as they embraced. I placed the Soul Gem inside a cubical barrier of orange light and cleared away the corruption. As the corruption cleared, Nagisa used her powers again.

Mami had become a magical girl when Kyubey found her dying in a car crash. Mami didn't have time to think about her wish and wished to live. Her parents had died in that crash. Now, Nagisa had brought them back.

Kyoko's father had been a cult leader. She'd made a wish that people would listen to him, and his following had grown. When he found out, he denounced Kyoko as a witch, killed the rest of her family, then killed himself. Nagisa brought back Kyoko's mother and little sister.

Finally, Nagisa turned to me. Her Soul Gem pulsed, but the magic didn't take hold. Sloth didn't come back.

"Of course it wouldn't be that easy," I said. I'd tried hard not to get my hopes up, but it still stung.

"Maybe if we reword the wish," suggested Nagisa.

"I still have a few things to try," I said, hardening my resolve. "First, though, I'll restore your true past."

Nagisa flinched when I harmlessly slashed her Soul Gem for the second time, removing my alterations to her history. Looking at the people she brought back, Nagisa asked, "If I never wished for the power to bring them back, how are they still here?"

"The power I used to alter your past is temporary, but what you do in the present with that altered past can have permanent effects."

"So, um, how do we...?" asked Nagisa gesturing at the people who'd come back from the dead.

"I can help them with the paperwork," I offered. "You should probably go with them to see Mami and Kyoko so you can explain what happened. We might as well do that now. We can meet back up and work on reviving Sloth after everyone's settled in."

I took everyone's information, answering any questions they had, then I headed for a government office while Nagisa took them to see their surviving family members. With the effectively unlimited funds I had access to thanks to my ability to turn lead into gold, I cut through the bureaucracy quickly and easily. New identification papers were in the main before I returned to my lab for the evening.

* * *

That evening, I produced three green soul candy pills. The artificial souls had personalities based on my limited interactions with Mami, Kyoko, and Sayaka. They were still just substitute souls, not fully sentient, so they wouldn't stand up to close scrutiny, but someone who didn't know to look for anything unusual wouldn't be likely to notice anything from brief interaction.

As I worked on the pills, I talked through what came next with my inner spirits.

"So far, I see two paths to getting Sloth back," I said. "Homura's standing in the way of both paths."

"I don't care how powerful she is," said Araña. "Use the Oin and crush her. Get Sloth back with the wish from Kyubey, then kill him with an adava kedavra like we planned. What's the point of having an artifact that grants absolute power over space, time, matter, and energy if you don't use it? I mean, really, what's the point of all this sneaking around?"

"We've tested the Oin only so far," reminded Tsumi no Rensa. "There might be a limit we just never reached in training. If there is, fighting Homura would be our best chance to find out."

"I'm still holding out hope I can get Homura to step aside without fighting her," I said. "I'm not entirely convinced she could kill me. It takes more than raw power to kill a homunculus and even if she could get that far, there'd still be our enhanced soul to deal with. The thing is, she has no reason to suspect just cutting my head off wouldn't work and she's had plenty of opportunities to do just that."

"Have you thought about what it means that Nagisa couldn't revive Sloth?" asked Vaccine.

"It would just mean that when she was taken by the Law of Cycles, her Soul Gem was still intact," I said. "Nagisa and Sayaka were taken and they both have their Soul Gems."

"But," prodded Vaccine.

"But, it could mean Sloth is actually in a better place," I said sighing. "It could mean everything I'm doing now is pointless or even harmful. It could mean I'm falling prey to the folly of so many alchemists before me and trying to control the cycles of life and death just because I'm not good at grief."

"There's little purpose torturing ourselves with these possibilities," said Tsumi no Rensa. "Nagisa can tell us what Madoka's afterlife is like once we jog her memory."

"Besides," I said, "a more pressing question is what we're going to do once Nagisa remembers she's Homura's enemy."

"If you don't think you'll still be working with her after that, making those pills is a waste of time," said Araña.

"Let's call the pills an expression of optimism," I said. "If the worst should happen, we'll be no less capable of burning this world than we would have been if we never made them."

* * *

It took a while before I could find Nagisa on her own the next day. The other magical girls were sticking close to her, particularly around times I'd met up with Nagisa before. Eventually, they hid in nearby buildings to make it look like Nagisa was alone. Finally, well after dark, they gave up and actually left Nagisa alone, at which point, I apparated in front of her.

"The others wanted to talk to you," she said when I arrived. "Why are you only talking to me and only when they're not around?"

"Because Homura Akemi asked me to stay away from the others, and I'm not sure I want to fight her yet," I said.

"Homura? Sayaka's friend?" asked Nagisa confused.

"If you'll come with me, I can make everything clear," I said.

She hesitated for a moment before following me. I led her to a spot above my underground lab. Stomping my foot, I used the transmutation circle on the sole of my shoe to reconfigure the matter of the street into a tunnel with a ladder leading down. Nagisa hesitated again before following me down. When I deconstructed the ladder and sealed us inside, she lost patients.

"Okay, why are you acting this way?" demanded Nagisa. "And what's going on?"

I picked up a small glass ball and tossed it to her. When she caught it, the ball began to glow.

"That is called a remembral," I said. "It glows like that when the person touching it has forgotten something."

"What do you mean? What have I forgotten?"

"You used to know where the familiars came from," I said. "I have a way to restore your memory. It's an intense experience, but it's very reliable."

"Is this what you used to remember how things were before the Law of Cycles?"

I nodded. "It's called the Gate of Truth. It contains all the knowledge in the universe, in all universes. I can open the Gate and expose you to the Truth. You won't be able to retain much, but any false memories will be swept away and any lost memories will be restored."

"What... what do I have to do?"

"All you have to do is agree to it," I said.

"Okay, do it," said Nagisa.

I clapped my hands and we were before the Gate. Massive stone double doors bordered by statues of writhing human figures and engraved with a stylized eye swung open. As the knowledge of the cosmos flowed through us, childlike creatures made of amorphous blackness with purple eyes reached out with tentacle-like limbs. If they could get a grip, they could remove our limbs or our organs. The first time I opened the Gate, they tore out my heart. I'd long since learned to fight them off. Clapping my hands, I deconstructed every limb that reached toward us.

Finally, the Gate swung shut and vanished. Overwhelmed, Nagisa was ion her knees with her eyes wide. I waited for her to collect herself.

"We have to stop Homura and rescue Madoka," said Nagisa as she got to her feet.

"I may have seen the same thing you did in the Gate, but you and I remember different slices of the Truth. I need you to explain what's going on."

"Where do I start?" she asked.

"Start when your Soul Gem became fully corrupted," I suggested, offering her a seat.

"Right. Okay. It was just after I made my wish. I realized how dumb it was and that I was gonna lose my mom because of it. Then, Madoka came for me."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It's hard to describe. She appeared floating over me, surrounded by light, then she did something to my Soul Gem. I wasn't angry or sad anymore. Then I was... a part of Madoka. It was like the Gate, but not scary. I was everywhere all at once and I knew Madoka was there with me, keeping me happy and safe. I still can't remember much of it. It's like a sweet dream you can't quite remember when you wake up."

"But you did wake up," I prompted.

She nodded. "Madoka made a dream place where we could talk and she asked me if I would come back to the real world to help her save another magical girl from despair. I said I'd do it if I got to eat cheese again."

"There's no cheese in magical girl heaven?" I asked. "Even the Soul Society had cheese. Of course, it also had poverty, disease, and most of the other problems the living worlds had."

"Madoka's world wasn't physical, and we were only really ourselves and awaken when she made dream places for us to talk."

"So, you came back whit her," I prompted.

"Sayaka and me both came back with her," continued Nagisa. "Kyubey trapped Homura in a barrier to try and isolate her from the Law of Cycles to make her turn into a witch. We snuck inside the barrier to help Homura. Madoka gave us t he ability to use the powers of the witches we would have been in order to deal with what we found inside Kyubey's barrier.

"We succeeded. We rescued Homura. Then, when Madoka came to take her, Homura did something that broke Madoka and the Law of Cycles into two different things. Homura changed not into a witch, but into some sort of demon, sealed the whole universe inside her barrier, and called up an arm of familiars.

"If you can show Madoka the Truth like you just showed me, she'll remember how to access her powers as the Law of Cycles again."

"Does Madoka becoming the Law of Cycles again mean you go back to sleep and never eat cheese again?" I asked. "Does your mom lose a daughter? Do Sayaka's parents?"

"None of that matters," said Nagisa. "Madoka was the loving presence with us while we were a part of the Law of Cycles that made existing like that heaven instead of hell. Without Madoka there is no salvation for magical girls like Sloth."

"And what happens to Homura?" I asked.

"With her full power, Madoka might be able to collect her. I don't know for sure, though. No one's ever rejected becoming one with the Law of Cycles like that."

"Moment of truth, I guess," I said, taking a deep breath. "I'll help restore Madoka to the Law of Cycles. I'll worry about bringing Sloth back afterward."

"Okay. I'll distract Homura and you go show Madoka the Truth."

"No," I said. "Homura erased you and Sayaka's memories in a fraction of a second. She can stop time and teleport. You wouldn't be enough of a distraction to cover me."

"So what do you suggest?" asked Nagisa.

I took out the green soul candy pills. "Mami, Kyoko, and Sayaka all knew Homura personally. She cares about them enough that she threatened me away from approaching them. If you have them take these pills, substitute souls will temporarily take over their bodies and you can bring their Soul Gems here without Homura noticing they're gone. Once they're here, I can restore their memories and we can all work together on a plan."

"And if she catches me?"

"She doesn't know your memory's back," I said. "Tell her this is about bringing them to see me about the people we resurrected together. Hell, use that explanation to convince the others to take their pills."

"Okay," said Nagisa. "I'll see them in school and bring the Soul Gems tomorrow."

"I'll have some bodies ready down here they can use."

* * *

Getting the other magical girls down to the lab and restoring their memories using the Gate went smoothly. In the living area, Sayaka and Kyoko were sharing the couch. Mami and Nagisa had pulled in chairs from the dining room. I conjured a comfortable armchair out of thin air rather than bring a chair up from one of the work spaces.

"I can't believe she still thinks we're friends after what she did," said Sayaka.

"She only did it after Kyubey locked her inside her Soul Gem and forced her to experience more grief than it takes to turn a magical girl into a witch," said Mami.

"I'm impressed she didn't snap a long time ago," said Kyoko.

"Not you too," said Sayaka.

"I'm just saying," said Kyoko, "she watched all of us die. Then she wished to go back in time to save us, but she couldn't. She just kept going back over and over again trying to make things right."

"Well, now she's messed everything up and we have to fix it," said Sayaka.

"If we can get Greed to Madoka, everything will be okay," said Nagisa.

"That won't be easy," said Mami. "Homura has familiars watching her day and night. If we rush in, we won't stand a chance."

"Homura's expecting me to make a move on Kyubey, not Madoka," I said. "She knows I'm conspiring with Nagisa, and after we brought back your families, it'd be easy for her to believe I got you on board with that."

"It's no good," said Mami, shaking her head. "If we feint toward Kyubey and you aren't there with us, she'll know we're up to something."

I touched my substitute soul reaper badge and separated my body and soul in a burst of blue light. My spiritual self was dressed in a black military uniform with silver trim. The sword form of Tsumi no Rensa was strapped to my left hip. My soul snapped his fingers and conjured another chair. Meanwhile, my homunculus self reached into a belt pouch and took a coin with a blood seal on one side and a transmutation circle with a glowing red stone in the center on the other side. Homunculus me pressed the coin to the oroboros mark in the center of my chest. After a burst of red light, I pocketed the coin once more.

"Homura doesn't know I can be in two places at once," said my spirit half.

"While all of you go after Kyubey, drawing off as many familiars as you can, I'll sneak past whatever skeleton guard she leaves with Madoka," said homunculus me.

"Just keep her focused on us, huh?" said Sayaka with a smirk. "I think I can do that."

"I can't bring anything less than my A game," said spirit me, who proceeded to gouge out my left yee.

"What are you doing?" asked Nagisa shocked.

"I have regenerative powers to grow it back, but I need a magic false eye to see Kyubey, the familiars, and probably a lot of other stuff she's going to throw at us," I said as I put a Mad Eye in my empty socket.

My homunculus self reached into a beltpouch and took out a glowing gold object about the size of a fist and said, "This is the Oin, also known as the King's Seal. It's a powerful artifact from another world, and using it might let me face Homura on her left."

Drawing my sword, my spirit half explained, "To use its power safely, the user must have mastered a rare ability called Bankai!" Blue energy surrounded me as my spirit energy swelled. When the air cleared, I was holding a length of chain instead of a sword.

With a flick of my wrist, I split the Oin in two using that chain length. The glowing halves vanished and their light shot into my spiritual body, granting me access to the full power of the artifact.

"Let's finish this."

* * *

Author's comments:  
Absolute power over Space, Time, Matter, and Energy makes for a pretty good description of godlike power. Having cut the Oin, Greed now has that power, limited only by his imagination. Whether his imagination is enough to beat a cosmic being who's already imprisoned one goddess remains an open question.


	4. Chapter 4: Madoka's Return

The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls (Chapter 4) Madoka's Return  
by Howlin  
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)

* * *

In a flash of gold light, I used the Oin's power over space to transport myself, Loki, and the magical girls to where my magic map said Kyubey was. The magical girls had all transformed into their unique battle costumes. Loki was in his green scaled, gold maned, three hundred pound chimera form.

Homura was dancing in front of an audience of her paper doll familiars with Kyubey lying motionless off to the side. Our appearance took her completely by surprise.

In the fraction of a second it took Homura to recognize what was going on, Mami summoned and fired a hundred single shot, rifled flintlocks. Some were aimed at Homura and some at her audience of familiars. Nagisa transformed into her witch, the cartooney black worm with clown makeup, a party hat for a nose, and massive, sharp teeth. Instead of transforming, Sayaka summoned her witch to fight beside her, a massive mechanical mermaid with a huge sword.

Kyoko and I rushed Homura directly, me managing to wrap the chain form of my zanpakto around her neck and decapitate her while Kyoko drove her spear through Humora's chest. Loki hung back. Unable to see much of what was going on, my pet chimera waited for me to give him a signal.

Destroying Homura's body didn't even slow her down. In a flash of purple light, Homura towered over us dressed in black and with a pair of black feathered wings coming out of her back. She had to be a hundred feet tall. An army of familiars marched out of the city to join their mistress in battle.

Homura's familiars were intercepted by the familiars Sayaka and Nagisa commanded. The four magical girls coordinated an attack on Homura while I turned and flash stepped toward Kyubey. Suddenly, the sounds of battle stopped, and my charge was intercepted by an enormous gloved hand.

Homura had stopped time to intercept me and the Oin's power over time allowed me to keep moving when everything else was frozen. She widened her eyes when I collided with her hand, but she had the presence of mind to close her hand around me. Then she picked me up and raised me to eye level.

"I told you to stay away from my friends," said Homura angrily. "I tried to be reasonable, but you've let me no choice."

Homura squeezed my body to pulp, crushing my skull with her thumb, and tossed my corpse to the ground contemptuously. Before I struck the ground, the Oin's power automatically reversed time's effect on me, undoing my death and restoring my body. I solidified spirit particles in the air into a handhold and caught myself.

Time resumed for everyone as I teleported next to Kyubey and cast a spell. Homura grabbed me and threw me through Sayaka's giant mechanical summoned witch form. I struck with the force of a comet, blasting straight through the witch's chest. I opened my arms and halted my momentum, then used space time reversion to undo the damage to Sayaka's witch.

Sayaka's witch grappled with Homura, holding her still while Mami summoned an enormous flintlock cannon and blasted Homura in the temple. Her brains were blown out, but magical girls don't need their brains to think, so the damage was largely cosmetic.

* * *

While the battle with Homura raged, my homunculus self was on the other side of town, hidden beneath an invisibility cloak. I'd taken a small dose of felix felicis, the gold colored good luck potion, about enough for ten minutes. The giddiness that was a side effect of the potion had me chuckling to myself as I reflected on the situation.

All of the new powers I'd squired since leaving this world were in the hands of my other half, currently fighting Homura. It was questionable whether any of those powers would make a difference. I'd restored the memories of the other magical girls using only alchemy I'd known since long before leaving my original world, and if all went according to plan, restoring Madoka would be handled the same way. The invisibility cloak and potion I was using were things I'd had with me the first time I'd visited this world too.

I brought my mind back to the task at hand when I reached Madoka's house. The windows were dark, and everyone had gone to bed. A small cluster of birdlike familiars were perched on a tree outside Madoka's window, watching over the pink haired girl and relaying their senses to Homura.

Invisible thanks to my cloak and intangible thanks to the array tattooed on my back, I stepped through the wall and into Madoka's bedroom. She was wearing flannel pajamas and her blankets were twisted from her tossing and turning in her sleep. A shelf filled with stuffed animals was positioned above her bed, high enough that she wouldn't hit her head sitting up.

I knew the plan, but the felix felicis in my system prompted me with an overwhelming urge to deviate from it. I tossed aside my invisibility cloak and called out, "Madoka, wake up!"

Madoka's pink eyes shot open. Before she had a chance to scream in response to the stranger in her room, Homura appeared, having abandoned the battle to defend Madoka personally. She was too late. With timing that would have been impossible without the good luck potion coursing through my veins, I clapped my hands the same instant Homura appeared, and all three of us were taken before the Gate.

Madoka and Homura were both phenomenally powerful beings capable of reshaping the universe to their whims. When the Gate opened, the amorphous black creatures I called the Gate Children reached out to claw away pieces from the two of them and were blasted into nothingness on contact. The absence of the Gate Children did nothing to make me feel safer as I stood before the Gate with the pair.

With our minds flooded with all the knowledge in creation, we also knew each other. When the Gate closed, that prospective would be lost, but for right now, there could be no lies between us, no deceiving ourselves, and no misunderstandings. Taking hold of that golden opportunity, I turned to Homura.

"The thing you love about Madoka is her kindness and generosity of spirit. Again and again, throughout every timeline, no matter what you did or how broken you became, and even when you were someone who scared her, Madoka always opened her heart to you and decided you were someone she cared about."

"But you were too kind," said Homura sadly, ignoring me entirely. "You were so selfless you were willing to sacrifice yourself again and again. I had to watch you do that. Then you became the Law of Cycles and you'd sacrificed yourself so completely, I was the only one who remembered you ever existed."

Turning to Madoka, who's pink eyes had turned gold when the return of her memories reconnected her to her power, I said, "It's hard to love someone who doesn't love herself. Homura knew you were important and worthy as an ordinary human being. Deciding she was wrong about that hurt her."

"I'm so sorry, Homura," said Madoka. "I never wanted to hurt you. I didn't think about how my wish would hurt you. I was only thinking about myself, how much I wanted to save you and all the others, and how powerless I was."

"And by cutting Madoka off from the Law of Cycles, you made her powerless again," I said to Homura. "The girl you love more than anything, you turned back the clock to when she was helpless, weak, and hating herself for it. The others could have been happy in your gilded cage, but the most important one, she never could."

"It was never going to work," said Homura. "The more I tried to protect you, to convince you to live for your own sake, the more miserable you got. You're someone who couldn't be happy if you weren't doing something for someone else. I should have understood that about you. I did understand that. I just lied to myself because I couldn't stand thinking I'd been hurting you all along. I'm so sorry, Madoka."

"You both love each other," I said. "What you've been doing hasn't been working because you've made assumptions about what the other person wants and needs. If you want to fix this, you have to talk to each other."

"Homura, I want to keep being the Law of Cycles," said Madoka. "Being omnipresent means I'm always close to the people I love and being timeless and acausal means I don't ever lose them. But most importantly, saving magical girls from becoming witches means I have some meaning and purpose. I feel good about who I am and what I do."

"Madoka," said Homura, "I want you with me. And not as some undetectable presence. You may feel like you're always with us when you're omnipresent, but to those of us still living in the world you're gone. I also need you to let other people help you and support you without getting down on yourself for it. You're not the only one who feels good when they help someone. Let me help you. Let your mom and dad be your parents. Let your little brother Tatsuya grow up with a big sister he can look up to and adore. Talk to your friends when you're feeling weak, or scared, or helpless and let them be there for you like you're there for them."

"I can be both Madoka and the Law of Cycles at once," said Madoka. "I am right now. I can stay like this, both existing inside time and being beyond it. Of course, if I did stay, Kyubey or someone else might come after me in order to interfere with the Law of Cycles." Madoka smiled.

Homura smiled back and said, "I can protect you. Even when you were just the Law of Cycles, Kyubey tried to trap you, control you... I used my power to do the same thing, but I could use it to ensure you're safe and free, no matter what comes."

The Gate closed. Madoka and Homura were holding hands and smiling. They both flinched when I clapped my hands.

Now that I knew what Madoka was, I knew what I had to do. When I'd asked myself what I was willing to do to get Sloth back, this was something I never even considered. Even so, I didn't hesitate.

With my hands clasped firmly together, I dropped to my knees and prayed.

"Madoka, someone very important to me was taken by the Law of Cycles. I didn't know what form she exists in now. If she's happy and content in whatever afterlife you've prepared for her, so be it, but if it can be done without it being a cruelty to her, I beg of you, bring her back to me."

"You don't have to do that," said Madoka, smiling benevolently down at me. "I had a talk with Sloth. She's on her way now."

A glowing pink portal opened up and Sloth stepped through. She was wearing the black bodysuit, red cloak with a flamel on the back, and gold crown with her Soul Gem set in the front that served as her magical girl combat outfit. Her hood was back, revealing her blue eyes and brown hair, done up in two braids that went down her back under the cloak. When she spotted me, she leapt into my arms.

On my knees, I still had to duck down a little to wrap my arms around her and hug her tight, assuring myself she wasn't going to disappear like a dream or an illusion. She kissed me then nuzzled her head against my shoulder.

"Magical girl heaven was a nice place to wait until you came for me, but I'm glad to be alive again," said Sloth.

"If you ever want to come back, there will always be a place for you," said Madoka as the portal closed.

"We should probably tell the others the war's over," said Homura, transporting us out of Madoka's bedroom and to the battlefield.

Homura's familiars vanished and everyone fighting them stopped and we saw Madoka and Homura standing together. Sayaka and Nagisa dismissed their familiars. Then the four magical girls and my other self came up to where we were standing. I removed my backup soul and merged with my spirit self, synchronizing our memories.

"What happened?" asked Mami.

"Homura and I talked," said Madoka. "We're going to be friends again."

"So, is it time to go?" asked Nagisa.

Madoka shook her head. "You can return to the Law of Cycles whenever you want, but I'd be pretty hypercritical if I didn't let you stay human when I'm going to."

"You're staying human?" asked Sayaka.

"Well, maybe a little more than that," said Madoka with a smile quirking on the side of her mouth.

"I-" began Homura awkwardly. "I tried to force everyone into roles I thought they'd be happy in. I was wrong, and I apologize. I hope you'll let me try to be your friend again."

Looking at Madoka as she silently pleaded for her friend to understand, Sayaka sighed and said, "That's gonna take some time. Lunch is on you for the next hundred years, and if you ever hurt Madoka like this again, I won't forgive you."

"So, what happens now?" asked Kyoko. "Do we just go home and see each other at school tomorrow?"

"There is one more thing," I said. I whistled and Loki appeared at my side, Kyubey's limp corpse held between his razor sharp fangs. "During the fight, I outlined Kyubey with a spell so Loki could see where he was and finish him off. Were you telling the truth about this being the last one?"

"Yes," said Homura, looking down at the dead Incubator.

"It feels weird," said Sayaka. "I mean, yeah, he caused basically all our problems, but he's the reason we're all together."

"When I wished to change the rules of how magical girls worked, I hoped it would mean Kyubey would change how he acted," said Madoka.

"Kyubey's the only reason I'm alive," said Mami.

"Why did you kill him?" asked Nagisa. "Didn't he offer you a wish if you saved him? I thought he was your backup plan."

"I had Loki kill him," I clarified, "because he granted Madoka's wish. Out of nowhere, he granted a wish that reached out across realities and back through time to kill Sloth in a way I didn't understand for months after she was gone. And the person who made the wish didn't even want to hurt her. As long as Kyubey's alive, that could happen again, and I won't stand for it."

"What would you have done if plan A didn't work?" asked Kyoko.

"Taken his corpse back to my lab and brought him back to life in a way I could easily undo after I got what I wanted."

"You can do that?" asked Sloth.

"After you died, I fought a bunch of evil fullbringers and stole their powers," I said. "One of them, called Book of the End, lets me insert a false past into someone or something. I'd insert a false past where I saved Kyubey, then, once I got what I wanted, I could remove that false past and he'd go back to being dead."

"And since you never rally killed him, he wouldn't become a part of your bankai," said Sloth. "Nice."

"Will you bring him back?" asked Homura.

"Why would you want that?" I asked.

"The wraiths," said Homura. "I have the power to destroy all of them. Kyubey understood how they arose out of magical distortions. I was using him to help me find them before they could attack anyone."

"You weren't succeeding," I said. "I found two wraiths in Mitakihara when I came back."

"Those were old wraiths," said Homura. "I had a familiar waiting every time a new wraith appeared to kill it immediately. Tracking the ones that were already here was taking time, but eventually, I could get them all."

"With no wraiths, magical girls can't purify their Soul Gems," said Sloth.

"I solved that," I said. "In the timeline where you died, I eventually figured out how to make artificial Grief Cubes."

"I know I screwed up making my wish," said Nagisa. "Sloth made agood one. Homura, do you think if Greed brings him back, you could keep him from granting wishes like mine?"

"Kyubey really did swear off granting wishes," said Homura, "but if he changes his mind, I can do that."

"What do you think, Sloth?" I asked.

"If Homura can reign him in and use him to clean up the wraiths, I suppose I can let go of my grudge against him," said Sloth. She held out a hand toward Kyubey's corpse.

"Wait," I said, lowering her hand. "If you resurrect him, it'll be no strings attached. Let me do it."

I took my badge off my belt and transformed it into sword form. At my signal, Loki dropped the corpse. I slashed the body, my blade doing no physical damage. The Incubator stirred and opened his pink eyes.

"Congratulations, Kyubey," I said. "The magical girls decided you get to live."

"You're here?" asked Kyubey, looking at Sloth. Then he turned back to me and thought, "Did I already grant your wish?"

"I granted his prayer," said Madoka.

"Don't think about going after her again," said Homura. "You know what'll happen if you do."

"Your survival has conditions," I said to the Incubator. "The magical girls have their conditions they'll be enforcing. My conditions are baked into the techniques I used to save your life. If you go to grant a wish that will effect anything outside this universe, you will die. If you try to tamper with the conditional I set, you'll burn away to nothing no matter how many bodies you have."

"I understand," thought Kyubey. "I'm impressed you managed to acquire so many interesting abilities since we met last. Are you ready for your wish?"

"I don't want a wish," I told the creature. "I like my soul the way it is. Instead, I'd like you to provide me with the equations, design specifications, and other technical data on granting wishes, producing Soul Gems, tracking magical distortions and the like."

"Why would you want that?" asked Kyubey.

"I've been working on a less horrifically exploitative implementation of a similar technology and your data would speed up the development process," I said. "I'll eventually figure out what I need on my own, but since you were offering a reward for saving you..."

"We've always tried to trade fairly with your species, even if we didn't understand your value system at all," thought Kyubey. "If that's what you want, here you go. Be careful with it, though."

I paid careful attention to what Kyubey was doing inside my mind as I let him past my occlumency barriers to implant the knowledge. He didn't try anything while he was in there. That done, I used the Oin's power to teleport Sloth, Loki, and myself back to the underground lab.

* * *

Author's comments:  
Destroying your enemies isn't how one achieves their greatest victories. Madoka and Homura are reconciled, Kyubey is contained, Sloth is back, and the other magical girls will have time to start to reconcile with their friend.


	5. Chapter 5: Catching Up

The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls (Chapter 5) Catching Up  
by Howlin  
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)

* * *

When we were alone in the lab, Sloth asked, "How long was it for you?"

"You remember both timelines, right?" I confirmed. "I spent about a year and a half in the soul reapers' world after you died. Things went mostly like you remember, but without you there, our victories were less complete, and we suffered more losses getting there."

"Like what?" she asked hesitantly.

"Kaien Shiba never came back to life and provided us advanced warning about Aizen's forces. We weren't as prepared for them and ended up massively underestimating them. It wasn't until we met Nel that we were fully up to speed, and you know how late in the campaign that was.

"Without her bringing you back, it took us an embarrassingly long time before we learned how powerful and important Orihime's powers were, so a lot of the casualties stayed dead. Sorting out the zanpakto rebellion was a lot bloodier without you. And that's not getting into all the times having one extra fighter made a difference.

"One of the biggest ones was Senna. Without you there to bring Soken back, we didn't find out about the shadow realm. Senna ended up having to sacrifice herself to keep both worlds from being destroyed. She didn't survive, and the Valley of Screams never went on to become the seed for a proper afterlife in our home world."

"I'm surprised you didn't use your wish from Kyubey to put things back the way they're supposed to be," said Sloth.

I shook my head and took out a notebook. "I never gave up hope that I'd find a way to bring you back. I studied my memories of your Soul Gem in the pensive, developed artificial Grief Cubes, and focused a lot more on understanding how the hogyoku worked. My designs were incomplete, but I was close to a way to use what I'd learned to grant my own wishes."

"Why is there a dragon in these design notes?" asked Sloth as she flipped through the pages.

"I based the design and the aesthetics on a manga Ichigo loaned me," I said. "The important thing is Kyubey gave me the information I need to finish it."

"So, we're going to use this to fix what happened?" confirmed Sloth.

"I figure it's better than relying on Kyubey to fix things, no matter how many new leafs he's turned over."

"Before we get started, can I get my homunculus body back?" asked Sloth.

"Sure," I said. I made a gesture and a reigai, an artificial spirit body, appeared.

Sloth touched her bright red Soul Gem to the body and animated it. The body she had been using didn't collapse like I expected. It just disappeared.

"What was that?" I asked.

"You know how witches can create a body using grief energy?" asked Sloth. "When Madoka brought me back, she removed the limiter preventing me from using witch powers."

"Since you can use grief, that means you don't need Grief Cubes or someone with space time reversion to keep your Soul Gem clean, right?" I confirmed.

"That's right," said Sloth. "Unlimited power, just like we used to talk about."

"It'll go well with the Oin," I said, separating myself form the artifact's power and manifesting it back into a physical form in my hand.

"I thought you must be using that," said Sloth. "So, I guess I should brace myself. I remember how much taking human form for the first time as a homunculus hurts."

"Not this time," Is aid, taking out a glowing red crystal the size of my fist.

"A Philosopher's Stone?" gasped Sloth. "How do you have one of those?"

"No one died for it," I said quickly. "The Oin lets me control matter and energy in any way I can imagine. I know how the Stone's made, so I could use the Oin to manifest as many as I wanted. I have a dozen more."

I held out the Philosopher's Stone and a homunculus body appeared lying motionless on the sofa. Sloth lied down and merged with the empty body, and the equipment built into the reigai copied her memories and personality from her Soul Gem into her new homunculus self.

Standing up, Sloth shifted her Soul Gem to ring form and willed her default black dress to appear. A quick twirl confirmed her oroboros mark was right where it belong,ed over her shoulder blade. I looked down at the Philosopher's Stone in my hand, looked up at her, and smiled.

"What?" asked Sloth.

"Try using your Ultimate Escape," I said.

Reaching down to the couch, her hand passed through it. She turned to me and asked, "When did you learn to grant homunculi abilities?"

"It's the Stone," I said. "It's always been the Stone. Shao used one to create you and you got the Ultimate Escape. Dante and Hohenheim had Philosopher's Stones and the homunculi they made had the Ultimate Shield, the Ultimate Disguise, the Ultimate Eye, and the Ultimate Maw. Izumi created Wrath without a Philosopher's Stone and he didn't have any extra powers, just like the homunculi I made."

"What about Lust and the previous Sloth?" aside Sloth. "They weren't made by people with Philosopher's Stones, and they had powers."

"But Dante got her hands on them afterward and she had a Stone," I said. "By the time Wrath came along, her Stone was depleted, but she'd have been able to grant powers to the other two."

"What power did you give yourself?" asked Sloth.

"I didn't," I said. "I just figured this out when I was making your new body. Also, I'm not sure there's any reason it has to be limited to just one."

"Dante's homunculi only had one each," said Sloth.

"Dante was creating slaves," I noted. "She wouldn't want them to get too powerful or she couldn't control them. You want to give it a try?"

"Go for it," said Sloth, spreading her arms and puffing out her chest.

Burst after burst of light from the Philosopher's Stone enveloped Sloth. When they stopped, the first thing she checked was that she could still phase through matter with her Ultimate Escape. She again effortlessly passed her hand through the couch.

"Okay," I said. "You haven't eaten any red stones yet, so nothing you do will depend on them. Try the Ultimate Shield." Her body was coated in grey armor harder than diamond. Then she resumed human form. "Ultimate Spear," I said, holding up a coin. Sloth pointed at it and her finger extended out, punching through the center of the coin and retracted back. I flicked the coin to her and said, "Ultimate Maw." She bit the coin in half, chewed, and swallowed. "Ultimate Disguise." A line of blue light ran form the bottoms of her feet up to her head and she now looked like me, only shrunk down to her normal height.

"Looks like I still need red stones to add or remove mass," said Sloth, resuming her usual form. "Still pretty awesome. Couple of questions, though."

"Shoot," I said.

"Why Gluttony's Ultimate Maw?" she asked. "We don't need to eat, so what's the use of being able to eat anything?"

"I figured being able to gnaw through restraints and eat our way out of prison cells would come in handy," I said. "Besides, the main point of Gluttony's power was that he could turn the people he ate into red stones or a Philosopher's Stone without using alchemy. I knew neither of us is big on cannibalism, but having a way to recharge if we're ever stuck on a world without alchemy again seemed like a good idea."

"I guess I can live with that," said Sloth. "It's not like having powers means we have to use them. Second question: What about Pride's Ultimate Eye?"

"Honestly, I have no idea what it did or how it worked," I said. "All we have are a few accounts of it in action and we don't know anything about its mechanism or how it felt when he used it."

"I guess that's fair," said Sloth. "Are you gonna do you next?"

"I think so," I said. The Philosopher's Stone pulsed over me, endowing me with the same set of powers Sloth had just demonstrated. After testing my new powers, I tossed Sloth the Philosopher's Stone and said, "Eat up."

She ate the stone like an apple then said, "I haven't said I love you since coming back to life."

"It's been a busy couple hours," I said. "I love you too."

* * *

Author's comments:  
The Philosopher's Stone was never an artifact our heroes could use freely. Recognizing the horrific cost associated with its creation, they always had to keep it in reserve rather than experiment with its powers. Now that it can be had without the price, a lot of options open up.


	6. Chapter 7: Aftermath

The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls (Chapter 7) Aftermath  
by Howlin  
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)

* * *

The next morning, I laid out a delicious ham and egg breakfast with a side of waffles. Sloth was still reacclimating to corporeal existence, and a delicious meal was a good reintroduction. Over breakfast, we decided to wait on leaving this world until after the school let out for the day so the other magical girls could see us off.

While we waited, Sloth and I got started putting together my design for an alternate way to grant wishes. Based, in large part, on Kiske Urahara's hogyoku designs, my creation required spirit energy and particles harvested from a single donor under a wide variety of extreme emotional states. The quantities harvested at each stage were injurious to the soul in question, but weren't fatal. My notes indicated the whole process would take around six months, largely to give the soul time to heal. Sloth's healing powers that she was able to use freely massively sped up the process.

By lunchtime, I had seven shimmering orbs, each about the size of a golf ball. Each orb was inside a barrier that prevented it from interacting with the outside world while they awaited the remaining spellwork I had in mind. Over a plate of infinitely refilling roasted turkey sandwiches, I explained the design we were working on a little more.

"All seven of them are derived from the same person, and that combined with the stable and magically potent number seven should encourage the to behave like one object. While separated, none of the individual balls should be able to do anything on is own, so the only time a wish can be granted is when they're all together.

"After the wish is granted, the balls get rendered dormant and scatter across the planet, each going to a place where it gradually bleeding off negative energy from the wish will cause the smallest possible distortion. Over three months, they bleed off negative energy and by the time they awaken, they're safe to use again."

"That all makes sense," said Sloth, "but I still want to know where the dragon comes in."

"It's the user interface and security system," I said. "After you gather the balls, you have to say the dragon's name. The balls project an image of a huge dragon that you tell your wish to. It's the dragon's consciousness that interfaces with the balls to make the wish happen. Its mind is made such that it can understand a wish, refuse certain wishes, explain whether a given wish can be granted, and remember previous summonings."

"And why a dragon specifically?" asked Sloth.

"That's what it was in the manga I got the idea from," I said with a shrug. "I certainly wasn't going to use something that looked like an Incubator for the user interface."

"Fair enough," said Sloth.

After a few more hours of work, I put the finishing touches on my new set of dragonballs. The last thing I added was an illusion spell to conceal their inner workings and to indicate which state they were in. While dormant and bleeding off negative energy, they'd take the appearance of unremarkable, round, white stones. When awakened and ready for use, they'd take the appearance of glassy orange orbs with one to seven stars on them.

Eager as I was to try them out, I didn't want to do it on this world. Instead, I just packed the up and headed out with Sloth and Loki to say my goodbyes to the magical girls.

* * *

Things were still awkward between Homura and the others. Madoka was making an effort to include Homura in conversation, but it would take time before the magical girls would be completely comfortable around her again. Still, even Sayaka had dropped her hostility.

Sloth, Loki, and I were waiting on the path near the school and overheard some of the magical girls' conversation as they approached. The fact that Homura had Kyubey with her wasn't surprising. That the Incubator had been allowed to heal his injuries was. Homura saw my surprised look as the girls approached us.

"Madoka thought leaving him injured was needlessly cruel," said Homura. "I can keep an eye on him in multiple bodies and deal with him if he gets out of hand again, so I'm giving him another chance."

"Not an outcome I expected to be pleased with," I admitted.

"To be fair, we didn't expect there to be someone willing and able to keep an eye on him," said Sloth. "Killing him seemed like a more realistic option."

"Thank you for helping me and Homura reconcile," said Madoka. "It's been... nice being with my friends like this again."

"Not having to worry about Grief Cubes is pretty nice too," said Sayaka. "Nagisa and I got you this." She took out a gift basket filled with fruit, cheese, and candy.

"Thanks," I said, taking the basket, shrinking it, and putting it in my belt pouch. "Are you guys going to be okay with just the one Grief Cube machine? I can make more."

"Don't sweat it," said Sayaka. "It turns out the super advanced magic alien's actually pretty smart. Kyubey figured out how it worked and how to make as many as we need."

"We'll be making sure the other magical girls out there get one for themselves while we work on eradicating the wraiths," said Mami.

"Just make sure you don't let Kyubey make any 'efficiency improvements'." I said. "That device produces artificial souls as part of how it works, and I went to a lot of trouble making sure those souls weren't fully sentient."

"So those inefficiencies in the production process were deliberate?" asked Kyubey.

"And... now I need to go smash that first batch of machines Kyubey made and make him start over," said Kyoko. "Good thing we hadn't started using them yet."

"That crisis averted," I said, "for those of you who are interested, this is your last chance to take me up on my offer to let you stop being magical girls. After we leave, there's no guarantee we'll be coming back to this world."

Sayaka came up to Sloth and said, "Magical girls really don't age, do we? You look like you should be in kindergarten, but you're old enough to be married. Does that get awkward?"

"Sometimes," said Sloth. "With enough practice, you can use your powers to change how you look if it bothers you. I've found most people don't make that big a deal about it once they know what's going on. I figure occasionally having to answer awkward questions is better than changing how I look to make people who would keep making a big deal out of it comfortable."

"That's a good way of looking at it," said Sayaka. "And that's why we ask for advice from our seniors. I think I'll keep my Soul Gem."

"What it means to be a magical girl is changing," said Mami. "If it were still the old, desperate struggle to survive, I'd take your offer in a heartbeat, but now, I think I'll be okay as a magical girl."

"Anyone else?" I verified. When no one stepped forward, I clapped my hands and said, "All right. Goodbye everyone."

A blue transmutation circle drew itself int he air above Sloth,Loki, and I. As the circle swept down over us, we were transported before the Gate. After navigating through the metaphorical space filled with golden light, we reached a clump of Gate Children standing watch over the passage to the world we were headed toward. Sloth and I easily kept the Gate Children form grabbing at us as I opened the Gate on the other side and the three of us appeared in Liore.

* * *

My home town was a desert city on the eastern border of Amestris called Liore. This place had seen civil war, interdimensional invasion, and had even been destroyed utterly by an alchemic reaction in an effort to create a Philosopher's Stone. We'd rebuilt, and I'd put everything I had into developing its infrastructure and protecting it fro future violence.

Liore now served as a vital manufacturing base for producing red stones. The red stones produced here in industrial quantities were used in alchemic research and multiple military applications nationwide. The red water was mixed inside large chemical plants in the city itself by trained alchemists. The stones themselves accumulated inside the thick stems of a specially designed plant called a philosopher's flower. Fields of philosopher's flowers were out in the desert, tended by animated suits of armor that weren't effected by the toxic gasses that wafted off the fields.

A significant fraction of the city's population had been covertly converted into homunculi thanks to a collaboration between myself and our mayor, Rose. Human transmutation was illegal in Amestris, even though we had the head of the civilian assembly, Roy Mustang, also known as the Flame Alchemist, lobbying to change the law. With everything this city had been through, both at the hands of the central government and at the hands of hostile invaders, Rose had decided it was safer to convert as many people as we could into super strong, regenerating immortals now rather than risk the possibility of being attacked without that advantage while we waited for laws and public opinion to change.

The final key to Liore's defense and prosperity was the sprawling campus of the state's only magic school. School textbooks and supplies I'd brought back with me from my time attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry formed the base of a magic curriculum. The school wasn't fully up and running yet, but when it was, it promised to add another truly indefensible aspect to this backward desert town that had once been literally wiped off the map.

Ordinarily, after an expedition through the Gate, I would meet with Rose and go over what I'd learned that could be used to help the town prosper. If the Elrics happened to be in town, we'd invite them to join us. Otherwise, we'd make plans to travel to their home town of Risembool to share the stories of our adventures.

These weren't ordinary times. Even though I had Sloth back thanks to Madoka, history had still been altered for the worse across multiple worlds. I needed to fix that before we could think about a return to normalcy.

After quietly dropping Loki off at the small house Sloth and I maintained here, I took Sloth by the hand and apparated us out to the middle of the vast fields of philosopher's flowers outside town where no human could survive. Then I took out seven golf ball sized orange balls with stars on them and arranged them on the ground.

"Assuming I did everything right, these dragonballs will be linked to my karmic potential," I said, looking down at my creation. "If I die properly, that potential zeroes out and they'll be useless, not that I'm planning on that happening, mind you. Hopefully, I have enough karmic potential to restore the good you did in the other timeline."

"You talked down a pair of warring goddesses, linked Kyubey's continued survival to how well he conforms to your will, and you remade two different afterlives into a form you found more pleasing," said Sloth. "I think you've impacted enough lives to build up more karmic potential than we'll know what to do with. Go on. I want to see this dragon."

"You're right. I'm just nervous." I turned to the dragonballs, held my hands toward them and called out, "Eternal Dragon! I summon you forth by your name! Shenron!"

Black clouds gathered and darkened the sky as the seven dragonballs on the ground pulsed with bright light. Then, a blast of lightning shot straight up from the balls, twisting and curling until the lightning transformed into the long, snakelike body of a massive, green scaled dragon. The creature loomed over us and stared down with glowing red eyes.

"I am the eternal dragon," rumbled the massive creature. "I will grant you one wish. Speak now."

"Very theatric," said Sloth.

"I don't think wishes should be low key," I said. "Can you imagine someone summoning Shenron and wishing for a cheesecake?"

"Not really, no," admitted Sloth. "What's with the antlers and the tentacle mustache?"

"They were in the manga I got the idea for dragonballs from in the first place. This is what Shenron looked like in the comic."

"Excuse me," rumbled the dragon looming overhead. "Did you have a wish or not?"

"Right, sorry," I said, returning my attention to the dragon. "Sloth's history was altered, and a lot of the good she did in the original timeline was undone. Can you restore the positive effects from that timeline for all the worlds that were effected by that alteration?"

Shenron's eyes glowed brighter for an instant, then he said, "Your wish has been granted. Farewell."

Shenron vanished in a flash of light. The seven dragonballs rose into the air then streaked off like comets in seven different directions. Finally, the clouds dispersed and the sky brightened again.

"If everything went well, we'll find Senna back in town," I said. "We'll need to stop by Ichigo's world to make sure everything got fixed there too, but we'll need to do that anyway to let them know you're back alive."

"While we're out, we can finally make good on our promise to attend Ginny and Luna's graduation," said Sloth.

* * *

Seeing Senna was a massive relief. Her unusual nature and her connection to the Valley of Screams where we were building our new afterlife meant she would be one of the hardest people to restore without the aid of a wish. Rose had called both Senna and the Elric brothers into her office once Sloth, Loki, and I arrived.

I'd previously shared bits and pieces of what I'd learned in the worlds of the Incubators and the soul reapers. This time I told the full take from beginning to end. Sloth had a good deal more to say on the Incubators and their magical girl system than I did, while I had a lot to say about the process of spiritual growth I'd undergone.

Shaking her head, Rose said, "We've barely gotten started making use of those magic school textbooks, then you showed up and dropped an afterlife on us to manage. It sounds like these mod soul copies of important soul reapers you brought will be able to help some, but to be honest, I'm getting a little overwhelmed. Whatever you guys bring back next might cross the line of what I can handle."

"Actually, I was thinking about staying to help out with the integration for a while," I said. "The cloned mod souls are no joke, and you'll need someone stronger than them to keep them from remaking our world in their image. Without me here to help manage them, they'd probably end up doing more harm than good.

"Besides, I think I need a vacation. After needing to deal with cosmic horrors like the Incubators, super powered evil geniuses like Aizen, and living goddesses like Homura and Madoka, I'd like to be able to spend some time consolidating our gains and just living among friends and family."

"The pace of the last couple worlds was intense," agreed Sloth. "Spending some time home teaching and processing everything wouldn't be bad."

* * *

There was a lot to do. The first order of business was to secure the hogyoku and the Oin behind fideleous charms. Edward and Alphonse acted as the secret keepers for the hiding places of the two artifacts.

Once the artifacts were locked away, the next step was to produce a set of reigais and bring the mod souls out of stasis. I'd given the mod souls too little credit. As copies of the captains and lieutenants of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, they were used to answering to a civilian authority. A democratically elected assembly wasn't that different from the nobility appointed chamber they'd been answering to all their careers.

Since Head Captain Yamamoto hadn't been among those cloned, the mod souls decided to appoint Shunsui Kyoraku their new head captain. Kiske Urahara had chosen to remain a simple shopkeeper in his world, but here, his mod soul duplicate took up one of the open captain positions and set to work building a new Department of Research and Development.

Maes Hues, who had been managing the provisional government among the souls in the Valley of Screams, was used to a military structure where individual soldiers could qualify as living weapons of mass destruction. Whether those individuals were high end soul reapers or state alchemists didn't change much. Normal soldiers were used to handle investigation work, hold territory, and interact with the population to free up the ones with exceptional abilities to act where they could do the most good. They gelled pretty well, especially after I armed Hues and his troops with the weapons and equipment I'd provided to the Rukon Militia back in the Soul Society.

When things were basically settled with the mod souls, Sloth and I took Loki with us through the Gate so we could check in with Ichigo and the others, let them know we were okay, and make sure our wish had worked. As we'd hoped, everything had been restored to the way it was in the first timeline. Ichigo and Uryu had their families back. Kaien Shiba, Rukia's part hollow siblings from the Rukon district, all four bounts, and countless low ranking soul reapers were all alive.

The friends we'd made in that world, both those among the living and those inhabiting various afterlives were glad to see Sloth alive and well. The fact that Kon, Nozomi, and the other mod souls were integrating well in their new home with Senna was a welcome bit of news as well. None of that completely made up for the sore feelings about me going after the Incubators alone, but it did help them get over it faster.

While we were here, Sloth and Orihime collaborated with Captain Unohana on developing a permanent cure for Captain Ukitake's illness. The white haired captain had developed a lung disease as a child and his parents bartered away his ability to ever be cured of it in exchange for ensuring he wouldn't die from it. Sloth's idea was for Orihme to use Book of the End to insert herself into Ukitake's past and cure his illness before his family took him to that god of stasis. It took some additional work to keep the treatment from interfering with his memory, and the effects would reverse upon Orihime's death, but the procedure was a success. It even had the unexpected side effect of turning the captain's hair black by undoing the long ago fit of illness that had turned it white in the first place.

After saying our goodbyes, Sloth and I didn't return immediately to Liore. Instead, we made a stop at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly to make good on our long delayed promise to attend the graduation of our friends Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley.

Before going to the school itself, we made a brief detour to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. While there, Sloth used her Incubator granted healing powers to restore Alice and Frank Longbottom to sanity. They accompanied us to the graduation where they had a tearful reunion with their son Neville.

After the ceremony, we got the chance to talk with our friends from this world in detail. Things were pretty quiet on their end so Sloth and I did most of the talking. In addition to giving blank zanpaktos to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and Luna, I also gave Ron a notebook. It contained a summary of what I'd learned about the spirit energy that defined the difference between wizards and muggles as well as detailed instructions on how to transfer it. Everything they would need to grant magic to any muggles they chose.

We promised future visits and wished our friends in both worlds well. Finally, Sloth and I returned home to Liore to begin the work ahead of us.

* * *

Author's comments:  
Much of this has been waiting for several worlds worth of exploration. Only now has the urgency finally run its course and the details can be sorted out and resolved.


	7. Chapter 8: Education

The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls (Chapter 8) Education  
by Howlin  
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)

* * *

The goal of the school that had been set up in Liore was so that I could pass on what I'd learned in my travels between worlds. Every citizen of Liore had the right to attend and we maintained boarding facilities for students from farther abroad to attend. In addition to the magics I'd brought with me from beyond the Gate, the school also provided a top quality education in math, science,history, and literature.

There was no shortage of teachers for the mundane subjects. Plenty of alchemists came to Liore to do research with the red stones we produced, so hiring a competent alchemy teacher wasn't overly difficult. Captain Ukitake had teaching experience with the soul reapers' style of spiritual arts and was eager to pass that knowledge on. That still left a significant number of subjects for which Sloth and I were the only qualified teachers.

In place of a sorting ceremony, the school year began with every new student being stabbed through the heart by the special sword Kiske designed to safely and reliably transfer soul reaper powers. Every student was given a wand and a blank zanpakto so they could begin the process of bonding with it.

The first year went pretty smoothly. Students came in with various skill levels in a lot of subjects, but the subjects Sloth and I needed to teach personally had nothing but beginners. We were able to divide up the teaching load between us and still have time for lives outside of work, socializing, helping set up the new afterlife, and continuing on our own training to broaden our abilities and to really master what we'd already learned.

Kiske published some interesting discoveries that first year. Among them was the fact that holowfication didn't naturally occur in this world. He hypothesized that it might be akin to a ubiquitous infection back in his previous world, since in addition to not hollowfying, people from this world lacked the normal antibodies against hollow energies. Transferring soul reaper powers also transferred the spiritual antibodies, but baseline humans would undergo soul suicide rather than ever be able to integrate hollow energy like fullbringers.

Having access to a properly clean population also allowed Kiske to determine that the chain of fate being visible like it was for human souls in the world of the living back where he came from was, in fact, a symptom of early stage hollowfication. When expelled from their bodies, permanently or otherwise, people from this world didn't have a visible chain of fate, though it still functioned as a pressure point like it did for soul reapers.

Sloth and I took an annual vacation to return to the other worlds where we'd made friends and catch up with them. It also let me keep an eye on my long term projects like the Rukon Militia and the growing homunculus population of magical Britain.

The teaching got harder the second year and every year after that. Sloth and I were still teaching multiple subjects each, and each passing year we were teaching an additional grade level of those subjects. We had to use time turners to keep up with the load and maintain some semblance of work life balance.

By our third year, the world was starting to change in significant ways. Mustang had finally succeeded in getting the assembly to bend on the human transmutation issue, licensing State Alchemists to perform such research under strict supervision and with considerable oversight. That led to numerous State Alchemists getting access to my earlier papers on the subject which had previously been heavily restricted. They came to me for advice. In another year, the assembly was giving serious consideration to authorizing the State Alchemists to convert volunteers into homunculi like I'd been doing secretly in Liore for years.

Between the renewed interest in bio alchemy and the various healing potions now being sold throughout the country, automail was becoming a dying art as a form of simple prosthesis and limb replacement. Engineers who wanted to continue plying their trade switched over to automail as a means of enhancement instead.

After five years, we graduated our first class of OWL certified students. The ones who decided to go on to NEWT level were given the opportunity to undergo hollowfication. Without having spent generations dying at the hands of hollows, the students were willing to accept my assurances that their inner hollows weren't evil, and they managed to establish relatively healthy relationships with their hollows.

It helped that by that point, with all my time turning, I'd finally mastered external manifestation. Tsumi no Rensa, Araña, and Vaccine were able to come out of my inner world and interact with the class directly. Since each of the students would get a copy of Vaccine when they underwent hollowfication, getting to know him a little before making that commitment made the transition easier on them.

* * *

"It's hard to believe it's just been seven years," said Sloth over breakfast.

"For us, it hasn't been," I said. "I haven't kept track of all the time turning we did to keep the students' graduation date on track."

"And if nothing goes wrong with the NEWTs next week, soon it'll all be over. We'll have qualified people to take over teaching."

"I can't imagine anything going wrong," I said. "We've prepared them as much as we could, gave extra help to the ones falling behind. They're already qualified. Next week's just about proving it."

"It really is amazing how well everyone's taken there being a real afterlife they can visit while they're alive, get visitors from,and talk to on the phone," said Sloth. "I expected the Ishbalans to react a lot worse than they did."

"Mustang's managed the whole situation better than I could have imagined," I agreed. "It's all just a fact of life now and the religious leaders are busy updating their doctrines. They'll probably have to update them again if Alphonse's research trip pans out."

"A unified theory of death that applies across all the worlds we've visited," said Sloth, shaking her head. "You couldn't figure it out."

"Al's smarter than me," I said. "He and Ed both are. I wasn't the one who cracked how to modify the fideleous charm so people other than regular living humans could use it."

"They were doing straight research. You were spending half your time teaching and the other half working on your hollow and quincy powers."

"I'd been poking at the problem off and on since before they even heard of it," I said. "And they didn't even stay for their NEWT years."

"They were getting restless," said Sloth. "I can't really blame them. I've been looking forward to getting back to exploring new worlds for a while."

"I definitely needed some peace and stability after those last worlds, but seven years has been a bit much," I agreed. "I cracked segunda etapa two years ago, and that was the last major spiritual power on my list. Refining my powers is all well and good, but I've been itching for the chance to learn something completely new."

"Well, we'd better take Loki out for his morning run," said Sloth, clearing the table. "We've been doing enough time turning lately without needing to use it to get to our morning classes on time."

* * *

Exams went smoothly. With how much of my own magical education had been interrupted by wars, prison breaks, and evil wizards trying to murder my friends, I was a little conflicted over how smoothly this had gone for them. I knew this was how things were supposed to go, but I felt almost like I'd left out something vital when they went into exams with their biggest worry being how their grades would turn out.

Roy Mustang, head of the Amestrian civilian assembly, came to attend the graduation ceremony. The man had long since stopped wearing his eye patch, and no longer felt the need to carefully hide his oroboros mark. He was accompanied by his entourage of close subordinates, many of whom had also decided to become homunculi in the intervening years.

A device plundered from the Soul Society's Department of Research and Development database was critical to our planned events. Somewhat resembling a spotlight, the device emitted a cone of energy that caused spiritual phenomenon to be visible and audible to muggles. The stage was lined with them. Without that, only the students and faculty would be able to appreciate the display as quincy archers lined up on one side of the stage, hollowfied students donned their masks on the other side, and fired arrows and balas upward so they'd collide and explode in a fireworks display that showed off the talent and control of the advanced class.

After the ceremony proper, there was a reception where staff, students, and guests could mingle informally. Mustang approached Sloth and I while we were splitting a plate of hors d'oeuvres with Loki.

"Rose tells me the two of you are planning another expedition through the Gate," said Mustang.

"It's something we've been planning for a while," I said. "As existentially terrifying as the last couple worlds were, we learned a lot from our time there."

"We are hoping the next world will be less existentially terrifying, even if that means we learn less," said Sloth. "It's no sure thing, but the Gate's generally been good about sending us to the sort of place we want to go. Easing back into things this first trip in a while, you know."

"I have to ask about certain strategic resources," said Mustang.

"The Oin, the hogyoku, the dragonballs, and the Philosopher's Stones are all staying here," I said. "If we needed more than our personal power and our normal equipment, we're probably better off leaving that world and coming back later anyway."

"It's good to know our trump cards in case of another invasion through the Gate won't be gone," said Mustang. "Of course, once we finish integrating what you've already brought back, it's going to be a nasty invader that'll force us to play one of those cards."

"Remember," said Sloth, "the dragonballs run on Greed's karmic potential. If they go dormant, it means somehow, he's been killed. In that case, we'll probably need a rescue."

"Edward and Alphonse are the only ones quite as comfortable with Gate travel as you two are," said Mustang. "They'll be the first to hear about it if we detect anything like that."

"Not that we're expecting trouble," I said. "Like Sloth said, we're going to try for a world where there's something new to learn, but where our current powers are enough to keep us safe."

"I know you don't hear this much from people in authority, but thank you for everything you've done, for me personally, for our country as a whole, and for the people in the other worlds who are becoming our allies. Having people willing to go out there, visit new worlds with all the risks that involves, and come back to share it all with us is invaluable."

"Likewise, thanks for what you do," I said to Mustang. "Societies have torn themselves apart over changes that are a minuscule fraction as extreme as Amestris has been through lately. You've kept things progressing in the face of social inertia and political resistance, and done it without resorting to violence."

"Throwing our weight behind you was definitely the right call," said Sloth.

"So, when are you heading out?"

"We're already packed," said Sloth. "The plan was to leave as soon as the party ends."

"Well, I won't keep you. Good luck," said Mustang before heading off.

"We can probably slip out early," said Sloth after he'd gone.

"I've spoken to everyone I needed to," I agreed.

We let Loki finish licking his plate clean, called for him to follow, and headed out. We ducked own the nearest empty alley and huddled close together. I clapped my hands and a glowing blue transmutation circle drew itself in the air above my head. It swept down over us and we were on our way through the Gate.

* * *

Author's comments:  
The knowledge they've brought back is finally taking root and changing the world. The beginnings of an interdimensional alliance are beginning to form thanks to repeated contact. As for the next world, there's always something new to learn.


End file.
